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How long ago would you like me to go back in history?
Also, why do you feel what happened 50-200 years ago is relevant today?
History is yesterday, and history is thousands of years ago. It is a process that affects everyone and everything. African people in this country came here involuntarily, without names, and our culture was taken from us forcibly. We were, legally and in function, nothing more than things. Animals were treated better than we were, and this lingered long after the end of slavery. As much as we have tried to reclaim and establish our identities in an environment that continued to stamp us as less than human, we have been affected by this. Anyone would. Combine that with the fact that this discrimination has not exited the consciousness of many Americans, and what we have is a very damaged group of people. This manifests itself in every way. Racism persists, and self-destructive behavior does too. Just because slavery ended in 1965, and Jim Crow (legally, but not de facto) ended a century later does not mean that things are equal. And as much as blacks, whites and others of progress continue to want things to be equal, and for everyone to behave in a civilized manner (no self-destruction on the part of blacks, no economic, social or judicial discrimination on the part of everyone else), we all know this is not happening. No other American ethnic group has experienced what the descendants of Africans have in this country, and its effects continue to linger.
On the matter of historical record, no ethnic group has been persecuted, enslaved, or expelled from countries more than the Jewish people.
Yet, always forward looking, they manage to rise to the top of nearly any industry they choose to invest their time.
They band together, and work together, versus make excuses due to their 6,000+ years of mistreatment.
I totally agree with this. My parents, relatives, husband, and in laws all came here with zero in their pockets. And they all are doctors, engineers, managers, etc. They came from war torn countries. So I don't get this mentality of racism. Others who are minorities (indians, chinese, etc) do very well here...
So what is the difference?
The difference between a hungry immigrant and a hopeless ghetto dweller is much wider than you may think. Just becuase a child grows up in America does not make him motivated to achieve. It that were so than all the young people in Appalacia would be motivated and become Harvard grads, but the fact is they are not. Most of them do not achieve. Why? Primarily because of the environment they grew up in. Though many AA's have to learn how to deal with the problems of their own community without blaming the white man they still have many odds against them. Indians and Chinese. Well, bravo to them but did you know that most successful immigrants are those who are prepared to succeed. They are usually the cream of the crop are far as those coming migrating from their respective countries. People who migrate are highly motivated people who are predisposed to succeed. If you took the top 10-20% of AA's and sent them to just about any country, that group would be capable of taking over. In that group you would have top lawyers, doctors, scientists, engineers, etc.
Now, let's just look back in history a bit. If blacks were accepted as equal citizens under the law in let's say, 1863, and were allowed to participate equally in education and economic opportunities early on, where do you think that race would be right now in America. How can a group who was not allowed to participate in the economic/educational race for a few hundred years (white had hundreds of years head start with opportunity) be expected, in just a single generation after fighting for and acheiving by law full rights, to even begin to catch up? I think black Americans have made a great deal of progress since the late 60's when they were allowed to participate in a meaningful way. Immigrants come here, not from a hopeless ghetto (in most cases) but with a knowledge that if they don't take advantage of opportunity, then they'll starve in a foreign country. That is a BIG motivation. Am I excusing African-Americans of certain behavior which continues to hold them back. Behaviours which were learned through many, many years of external subjugation and depravation as well as there own neglect? NO! Blacks must see that regardless of what has been imposed on them from the outside as well as things self-imposed, must be dealt with before, as a race, they can fully participate and enjoy the fruits of the America which they have helped to build. They must begin by stop blaming the white man and even though history has been very cruel, they must learn how to overcome the unjust hand that was handed to them and play to win. Black youth who allow others to discourage them from doing better in school must learn how to ignore that element. Black men who leave their children must no longer allow that legacy to continue which began in slavery where fathers were purposely severed from their families. Fatherless black families goes way back when the slave masters emascualted black men intentionally and now most folks ignore that fact. When a community has been shaped and formed in it's infancy, it's problem become endemic to the gruop structure. Nevertheless, African-American must no longer blame the white man and whites must stop arbitrarily blaming the victim. Let each man take responsibility for his own condition here and now and let's work to understand one another and eradicate any lingering effects of the injustices of the past. So that America can become even greater than it now is.
Let each man take responsibility for his own condition here and now.
With all due respect, your post could have started and stopped with this.
The biggest enemy to African-Americans these days are themselves... the "no snitching" misogynistic criminal culture so idolized by the AA community really screws AA youth and sets them up for failure.
On the matter of historical record, no ethnic group has been persecuted, enslaved, or expelled from countries more than the Jewish people.
Yet, always forward looking, they manage to rise to the top of nearly any industry they choose to invest their time.
They band together, and work together, versus make excuses due to their 6,000+ years of mistreatment.
Let's not get into a Jew vs. Black thing here.........but there are vast differences between the experiences of the two groups in America.
On the matter of historical record, no ethnic group has been persecuted, enslaved, or expelled from countries more than the Jewish people.
Yet, always forward looking, they manage to rise to the top of nearly any industry they choose to invest their time.
They band together, and work together, versus make excuses due to their 6,000+ years of mistreatment.
And Jewish people, rightly so, will not and do not let anyone forget their history of persecution. I don't hear anyone telling them to get over what happened to them in the 1940s.
Since you are looking at Jewish people's accomplishments many thousands of years later, prehaps you will concede that it is a very different thing to look a situation 50 years later and 2000 years later. If we are still having this conversation about slavery 1900 years from now, I will concede the point.
With all due respect, your post could have started and stopped with this.
The biggest enemy to African-Americans these days are themselves... the "no snitching" misogynistic criminal culture so idolized by the AA community really screws AA youth and sets them up for failure.
And that's a crying shame.
I wish I could have "started and stopped wih this" but that is not the reality. I think one of the biggest problems we have with race relations is that we all wish it would all just go away. Just vanish into thin air. Let's pretend things did not happen which invariably affect conditions today.
I was trying to be as balanced as possible without laying all the blame on either side. AA's not a monolithic group. Many, many have acheived greatly and many, many more continue to break barriers which their forefathers never dreamed possible. There, though remains a sub-culture of AA's who have been left behind. But I don't think that it's the primary responsibilty of whites to solve this lingering problem, it is the task of the successful black segment to come together and come up with ways to help those who've left behind.
Btw, I also think it's a "crying shame" of the millions of white children who fail to acheive and who practice "criminal culture" and immoral deeds.
There has been a significant difference in the socio-economic background of immigrants in this country as well. Immingrants coming to this country who were from middle-class, educated, professional backgrounds - in some cases, the "best and brightest" from a society who were sent/sponsored to go to college and or grad school in the states and later stayed - it's no surprise that they and their offspring have done pretty well.
One of the interesting subtexts of the Affirmative-Action debate is that a good number of those being advantaged are immigrants or recent immigrants, rather than those who have been through cycles of generational poverty in this country.
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